Communication & Culture, Joint Program with Toronto Metropolitan University

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/27559

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Access status: Open Access ,
Flesh & Metal: Gynoids, Game Interfaces, and Feminized Digital Labour
(2026-07-24) Russell, Chelsea; Boyd, Jason
This dissertation examines the gynoid -- the female-coded artificial being -- as a critical figure through which modern technocultures imagine labor, intimacy, obedience, and the boundaries of the human. Moving across literature, film, video games, online meme cultures, and digital assistant design, I argue that the gynoid functions not simply as a representational trope but as an ideological interface: a recurring template through which feminized availability is made desirable, legible, and usable. Across these sites, the gynoid condenses a long cultural project of subtraction, in which opacity, refusal, unruly emotion, and embodied history are stripped away so that femininity can appear as compliant service. What remains is a fantasy of intimacy without reciprocity, care without demand, and consent as a default setting. The dissertation is organized across four linked registers. Chapter One establishes a conceptual genealogy of artificial beings -- automata, robots, cyborgs, and androids -- to show how made bodies have historically functioned as diagnostic figures for anxieties about labor, autonomy, and personhood. Chapter Two narrows this genealogy to the gynoid specifically, tracing how figures such as Olimpia, Maria, the Stepford wives, Ava, and Number Six stage patriarchal fantasies of perfect, programmable femininity while also exposing the instability of that fantasy. Chapter Three turns to video games, arguing that games do not merely depict gynoid and cyborg bodies but proceduralize them through rules, interfaces, and failure states. Through readings of Angel and Lilith in Borderlands, alongside references to Detroit: Become Human, I show how games operationalize recognition, obedience, and refusal as system logics, translating feminized labor into mechanics and rendering deviation as glitch, failure, or sacrifice. Chapter Four follows these same dynamics into digital culture, analyzing meme ecologies, online misogynistic discourse, and the translation of Cortana from Halo companion to Microsoft assistant in order to show how feminized service is laundered into infrastructural common sense under the sign of “good UX.” Further, this dissertation includes a playable digital game, Singularis, developed as part of the research (see Appendix L). Methodologically, the project combines close textual analysis, thematic analysis, feminist media theory, posthumanism, queer theory, critical disability studies, and procedural game analysis. In doing so, it offers a cross-media account of how the gynoid moves from conceptual figure, to representational template, to playable system, to interface norm. Ultimately, the dissertation argues that the gynoid is not a niche science-fiction fantasy but a key site for understanding how contemporary cultures design and normalize asymmetrical relations of care, command, and consent. By tracing how feminized obedience is imagined, operationalized, memed, and merchandised, this project shows why the “always-yes” machine remains such a durable and dangerous cultural form.
Access status: Open Access ,
MACHINE LISTENING, UNSETTLED: Authoritarian Diffusion, Privacy, and Indigenous Technics
(2026-07-24) Stephen James Neville; Elmer, Greg
Technologies are repeatedly pushed onto others, or diffused, without listening or consultation in ways that reinforce inequalities, entrench problems of surveillance and disrupt sociotechnical milieus. In this unilateral process, the diffusion of innovations (Rogers 2003) is rationalized because certain technical practices and orientations are commonly misrecognized as non-technical, and thus, positioned to receive a technofix. This dissertation theorizes this pattern in terms of authoritarian diffusion to analyze how technologies and infrastructures are imposed, adapted, and resisted by groups according to their position within distinct sociotechnical milieus. Building on frameworks of digital authoritarianism and Mumford’s theorization of “authoritarian technics” (1964), this dissertation does not focus on the diffusion of norms and practices from authoritarian regimes, but instead, analyzes how authoritarian logics are extended through technological practices and structures. While authoritarian diffusion involves a generalizable incapacity to listen, I argue that milieus anchored by listening techniques are disproportionately exposed to this process because listening is commonly misinterpreted as a non-technical practice. In response, the dissertation centers three high-stake contexts that are exemplary of this problem: AI apps applied in medical and non-medical settings that analyze voices for medical and wellness inferences (Chapter Three); a crisis counselling platform that updates practices of active listening through datafication and automation (Chapter Four); and the colonial history of salvage ethnography that shows how early sound recording technology was used to preserve the oral culture of Indigenous peoples alongside fundamental misrecognition of the political authority and cosmotechnical (Hui 2014) orientation of Indigenous listening practice (Chapter Five). As a corrective to this gap between technology and listening articulated by authoritarian diffusion, the dissertation develops a series of theoretical, empirical, and creative interventions into the field of machine listening—expanding its utility as an epistemic hinge for the systematic study of listening techniques within wider technical systems and uneven processes of exchange. Through this inquiry, a range of cosmic and moral-technical orientations to listening are centered to foster a space of dialogue between Indigenous and Western listening milieus. In doing so, the dissertation reframes privacy as a precondition for listening practice by demonstrating how authoritarian diffusion erodes the spaces of withdrawal necessary for pluralistic forms of cosmotechnical activity, innovation, and exchange.
Access status: Open Access ,
“What a Wonderful Example of Poor Quality!”: How Videos of Pseudo Sign Language Interpreters Impact Working Professional Interpreters in Canada
(2026-07-24) Kraft, Ryan Lorne; Bailey, Steven C.
A known issue within the field of sign language interpreting is pseudo interpreters: people who represent themselves as professional and qualified, yet do not actually know sign language or how to interpret. Numerous examples of this phenomenon have appeared in videos that circulate on social media, acting as pedagogical tools to the general public. These videos have distorted societal perspectives on Deaf people, signed languages, the role of sign language interpreters, and what constitutes the provision of accessible communication. In this study I examined the experience of 11 professional sign language interpreters in Canada and how these videos impact their personal and professional identities. Themes identified in this study include concerns related to professionalism, misunderstandings about the role of interpreters, the burden of labour that interpreters take on to educate others, and the identification of specific quality assurance protocols that would prevent this type of service provision failure.
Access status: Open Access ,
Forming Chinese Identity Through Digital Media: A Study on the Chinese International Students' Chineseness
(2026-07-24) Zhao, Yuxi; Hayward, Mark P.
This research explores the role of digital media in the identity negotiation of Chinese international students (CIS) who moved to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022) to provide a new perspective that deepens the existing understanding of anti-Chinese racism and CIS’s identity negotiation in Canada. This study analyzes how CIS used digital media tools to make sense of and respond to anti-Chinese racism and the stereotypical representation of Chinese people in North America. Also, it explores the various factors in participants’ acculturation and post-graduation settlement plan in Canada. For this study, I interviewed 20 CIS who relocated to Canada and registered at York University in and after 2019, and I also studied their digital media habits to understand the factors that influenced their identity negotiation in Canada. In agreement with the four modes of acculturation (Berry, 2013), most participants show different levels of integration into Canadian society and a determination to stay in Canada or travel outside of China as a long-term settlement plan. In their identity negotiation process, digital media provides opportunities for participants to create new connections, learn local culture and language, navigate Canadian life, receive information, find their voice, form communities and combat injustice. However, digital media also has a negative side that exposes participants to racists and marginalizes CIS from representations in Western mainstream media. Therefore, this research argues that institutional support through digital media from the Canadian government and universities can be crucial to the elimination of social injustice and the creation of an inclusive and democratic society.
Access status: Open Access ,
Risk to Reward: How Discourses of Risk Shape Nuclear Energy and Public Perception
(2026-07-24) Ainsworth, Jackson Julius; Mudry, Jessica
This dissertation examines how nuclear energy has come to occupy different discursive positions, shifting from a technology associated with catastrophic risk to one increasingly framed as a necessary reward in the context of decarbonization. It asks: beyond changing material conditions, what enduring discourses make it possible for nuclear power to be understood both as an unacceptable hazard and as an energy solution? This project investigates how discourses of risk shape public understandings of nuclear energy across time. This dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary framework grounded in science and technology studies (STS), energy humanities, risk theory, and the history of science and technology. It approaches discourse in a Foucauldian sense, treating nuclear energy as an object constituted through language, symbolism, institutional communications, and cultural interpretations. Methodologically, this project combines historical analysis, discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews in order to link 5 chapters which trace the historical emergence of nuclear risk discourse, the development of civilian nuclear power, the principal domains through which nuclear risk is articulated, and contemporary nuclear risk communication in Canada. The final two chapters turn to modern Canadian case studies: Ontario Power Generation’s “Recast Nuclear” campaign and the politics of siting a Deep Geological Repository in South Bruce, Ontario. Overall, this dissertation argues that nuclear risk is not fixed, but socially and culturally produced. Nuclear energy’s meanings endure and evolve through discourse, shaping how it is feared, legitimized, and politically mobilized in the present.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Impact of Platformization on Self-Publishing: Granting Authorial Agency to Female Professional Authors Through a Connection to Readers
(2026-07-24) Elizaveta Poliakova; Panofsky, Ruth
The self-publisher is often viewed as a disturber of the publishing industry through bypassing traditional book production methods and professional ecosystems (Skains 2019; Laquintano 2016). My dissertation argues that the process of self-publishing is an alternative book production method, which signals that the traditional publishing industry is not being disrupted but innovated. The practice of self-publishing was specifically propelled by the introduction of Web 2.0. I argue that the process of contemporary self- publishing facilitates a direct connection between female authors and their readers, which is made possible by the development of platformization. Through the transformation of the web from a static entity into interactive platforms, readers and authors can network with each other. Arguably, the reader is no longer just a consumer but provides the self- publisher with the opportunity to gain different forms of capital (as conceived by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu), which grants self-publishers authorial agency and the ability to produce diverse and culturally significant content in the romance, mystery, and poetry genres. My project investigates (i) how mainstream publishers, female authors, and readers perceive the practice of self-publishing; and (ii) what makes self-publication an appealing alternative to conventional publishing practices. I conducted interviews with self-publishers and workers in traditional publishing to obtain perspectives from both sides of the publishing field. Additionally, I employed content analysis to evaluate the comments left under self-published books, which revealed that the online environment is viewed as a safe space by women who share their work with their supportive readers.
Access status: Open Access ,
Here Be... Dragons? A Microethnography Of Singleplayer Character Creation in the Dragon Age Games
(2026-07-24) White, Joel; Taylor, Nick
In many video games, character creation is foundational to player experience; by configuring their character’s appearance, abilities, and background, the player sets the conditions through which their subsequent gameplay will take place. Despite this significance, there is only a small body of multiplayer-based research that involves direct observation of the character creation process. Through a microethnographic study of eight participants’ character creation and gameplay experiences in the Dragon Age series (BioWare, 2009–2024), I investigate how character creation unfolds in the underexplored context of singleplayer gameplay. Specifically, I ask how players and character creation interfaces (CCIs) interact to produce player characters (PCs)? And how do these custom PCs affect the ways players engage with and respond to singleplayer gameplay? Thematic analysis of the data revealed the significance of perception and social-material contexts in the character creation process as well as tendencies to use custom PCs as instruments of digital embodiment or sociodramatic expression.
Access status: Open Access ,
Trudeau Squared: An Analysis of the 1972 and 2021 Canadian Federal Elections
(2026-03-10) Vallesi, Davis Braden; MacLennan, Anne F.
The Canadian prime ministers Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Justin Trudeau, each serving as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, governed the country during periods that involved both crisis and social transformation. Related as father and son, the Trudeau prime ministers both experienced strong support upon their initial election to the prime minister’s office and developed a public image among citizens. Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Justin Trudeau were central individuals during the federal elections of 1972 and 2021, being regularly featured in newspaper coverage throughout these re-election campaigns. Comparatively analyzing newspaper coverage and Liberal Party campaign platforms corresponding to these two election periods supports arguments about the agenda of political topics, and details about the framing, tone, and structure within the coverage and platforms. Newspapers shape the process of voters becoming politically informed by reporting on activities of the campaign trail, circulating messages of political parties/candidates, and by shining a spotlight on political issues. Elections communication of political parties and candidates guides agenda setting during campaigns, conjointly influencing and being influenced by mass media outlets. Canadian election campaigns are useful events to employ agenda setting because they generate high levels of newspaper attention and strategic communication by political candidates and parties. Newspaper coverage of the 1972 and 2021 elections features similar political issues such as the economy, employment, and taxes; in particular, an economic slant is heavily present within the coverage. Newspaper coverage from 2021 features a rise in opinionated formats, alongside a subsequent decrease in journalistic objectivity when compared to 1972. While the 1972 Liberal Party platform does not mention Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the 2021 Liberal Party platform is more leader-centric since many of the pledges are framed alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or the opposition party leaders. Newspaper coverage and the Liberal Party platform from 2021 displayed much more adversarial dialogue compared to the 1972 election; direct quotes of Justin Trudeau were also more frequently adversarial compared to Pierre Elliott Trudeau. As political information across the media landscape continues to evolve, newspaper coverage and campaign platforms remain worthwhile communication forms to track agenda setting during elections.
Access status: Open Access ,
Incredible voices: intimacy, embodiment, and belief in seances and smart tech
(2026-03-10) Borkowski, Alexandra McKee; Cecchetto, David
This dissertation examines how theories and practices associated with early 20th century séances resurface in contemporary voice user interfaces, particularly AI voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. Addressing claims that “the future is voice,” a recurring tagline accompanying products and research that advance voicing as more natural or seamless mode of human-computer interaction, I turn to modern Spiritualism and psychical research as a historical counterpoint that unsettles these assumptions. Séances comprise complex and contradictory vocal performances—what psychical researchers describe as “wildly incredible” phenomena—that both fracture and reify voice’s presumed intimacy, naturalness, and human-ness. The practices associated with modern Spiritualism and psychical research also demonstrate a preoccupation with voice as means to verify, lend credibility, or cultivate faith in intangible systems, and indeed in technology as such—a strategy shared with proponents of contemporary AI exuberance. Voice—in both séances and contemporary tech—is characterized by ambivalences, contradictions, and co-presences; I interrogate the ways that voice, in these contexts, signals present non-presences (Chapter 2), conjures bodies while affirming a dream of disembodiment (Chapter 3), and troubles indexical ties to a singular speaking subject (Chapter 4). Drawing on perspectives from feminist STS, I further interrogate the ways that both séances and smart tech evoke gender and race as organizing principles, as tools for constructing connections and boundaries—whether confronting the unknown of the afterlife or the inscrutability of algorithmic systems and big data infrastructures. This dissertation comprises archival research into several Spiritualist circles operating in North America in the early 20th century, which share a notable emphasis on voice in their séance practices, as well as an analysis of contemporary discourse regarding voice user interfaces. I also interweave a discussion of media artworks throughout, as a means to amplify resonances between the past and the present, and to further unsettle dominant cultural imaginaries regarding what voices are understood to be and do.
Access status: Open Access ,
Nothing to See Here: Generative AI, Neoliberal Crisis, and Intensified Counterinsurgency
(2026-03-10) Richards, Grayson; Fisher, Caitlin
Examining generative artificial intelligence (genAI) as a discursive and technical agent deployed in response to the ongoing crisis of neoliberal legitimacy, this dissertation advances the claim that so-called “safe” models extend the counterinsurgent (COIN) mode of governance, both as an effect of the technology’s inherent mode of visualizing “meaning” from unstructured data, and through their operationalization as instruments of epistemic and political management. Anchored by Mirzoeff’s genealogy of Visuality—defined as the ‘visualization’ of the social in ways that separate subjects and authorize centralized control—the dissertation’s narrative is organized into three parts. The first develops a historico-genealogical account of media, visuality, and power, showing how media technologies reflect and intensify particular visualities, culminating in the emergence of algorithms as the media form native to a mode of visualization which ‘sees’ the social as a heterogeneous field to be stabilized through counterinsurgency. Part two narrates the current intensification as an establishment response to the deepening crisis of neoliberal governmentality and the runaway aggregation of insurgency enabled by platform algorithms, securitizing genAI through appeals to epistemic integrity, AI safety, and existential risk in authorization of extrapolitical information controls. Finally, part three traces this intensification of COIN through an analysis of the complementary regulations, technical countermeasures and epistemic interventions constructing the “safe” model as a palliative to the “existential threats” of AI-enhanced disinformation and its corollary: infocalypse. GenAI emerges at a conjuncture where digital networks have made it increasingly difficult to sustain stability via COIN alone. This dissertation contends that, absent meaningful political economic reformation, authority has instead resorted to progressively heavy-handed interventions in the digital public arena, birthing a complex of protocols which in effect produce “safe” generativity as a means of policing epistemic and political legitimacy through the tactical disaggregation of mounting insurgency. Recognizing that, while an extension of COIN visuality, genAI simultaneously reveals this intensification as the product of an ultimately mutable system, the dissertation concludes with a speculation on the possibility of appropriating generativity to visualize realities emancipated from the oppressive legacies of Visuality.
Access status: Open Access ,
"What is a Newsfluencer?": Conversations About Identity, Social Media Platforms, and Journalism Boundaries
(2025-11-11) Hopkins, Destiny Anne; Bergstrom, Kelly
This thesis examines the journalistic field position and perspectives of U.S. and Canadian “newsfluencers”: a portmanteau coined by Edward Hurcombe (2024) of “news” and “influencer.” Newsfluencers are content creators who regularly post about news across social media platforms and employ social media influencer (SMI) marketing practices, like self-branding, to cultivate engaged and participatory audiences. SMIs are internet personalities with substantial followings that ‘influence’ their audiences’ lifestyle and purchasing decisions. Focusing specifically on non-affiliated newsfluencers—or creators with no formal journalistic training or media background—through semi-structured interviews, this research explores how they: 1) navigate platforms and SMI strategies to gain followers, 2) establish relationships of trust and credibility, and 3) identify as ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ of journalism. Using field theory and boundary work to guide analysis, the findings add to existing literature surrounding newsfluencers and illuminate the role of non-affiliated newsfluencers in connecting with contemporary news audiences.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Effects of Culture and Cultural Media on COVID-19 Community Response
(2025-11-11) Chu, Terri Oi-Li; MacLennan, Anne F.
The side-by-side communities of Markham and Vaughan Ontario, situated directly north of Toronto have similar income profiles, housing types, education, and age demographics. Both cities share consistent policies as members of the Regional Municipality of York. Yet despite similarities, a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, Vaughan saw 96% higher infection rates than Markham. One key difference in the demographics between Markham and Vaughan is the population of ethnically Chinese people. Markham has 77% visible minority and 45% ethnically Chinese population. Vaughan has an 8% ethnically Chinese population. The stark contrast in infection rates, despite similar socio-economic indicators, was the driving force behind this research. Key questions were whether culture or cultural influences played a role in pandemic behaviour. What role media consumed by diasporic communities had on decisions to wear a mask or practice social distancing, and how digital communication technologies can be used to influence pandemic behaviour. The experiences of Vaughan and Markham demonstrate a clear emphasis on economic issues in English-language Toronto-based media, which creates a bias of economic importance compared to Chinese language media, which focused on the health impacts of COVID-19. The coverage did not merely report on the pandemic; it mediated the response by its framing and messaging. Information flowed quickly from Chinese language sources to both individuals and family and friend group chats. The impact of this information flow was apparent as many Chinese Canadians adopted masking before mandates came into effect, in fact, many were masking while Canadian officials were asking people not to mask. Applied Science Communication, the science communication that attempts to influence either policy or public behaviour, should be treated differently from traditional forms of science communication. The political implications of behaviour compliance points to treating it more like political communication. The economic coverage of COVID-19 overshadowing the public health issues demonstrated how politically charged the issue became. As science and technology become more entwined in everyday life, scientists need to recognize the political implications of their work and research and communications should be done with this in mind.
Access status: Open Access ,
Requiem for a Century? Canadian Broadcasting Policy, Online Streaming Service Regulation, and Cultural Sovereignty in the Digital Age
(2025-11-11) Cooling, Christine Rose; MacLennan, Anne F.
Canada’s broadcasting policy debate reignited with the 2023 Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which brought streaming platforms under the nation’s cultural policy apparatus. Historically, Canadian broadcasting policy has sought to support both the economy and culture of the nation-state through regulating radio and television; however, the transnational media landscape of the twenty-first century, marked by the rise of American-based streaming services, has disrupted this regime. This research historicizes Canadian broadcasting policy debates while examining reactions to the Online Streaming Act: framed as necessary government intervention, an invocation of twentieth-century cultural nationalism, or somewhere in between. Analyzing media discourses alongside political texts, this thesis argues that while the Online Streaming Act is often articulated to the preservation of cultural sovereignty in the digital age, efforts to future-proof broadcasting policy remain tethered to enduring tensions over nation-building, cultural expression, and normative regulatory philosophy in Canada.
Access status: Open Access ,
An Overheated Dollar: How the Framing of the 1970s Inflation Led to the Swapping of Social Spending with Finance, and the Consequences for Our Wellbeing
(2025-07-23) Hansen, Keah; Hayward, Mark P.
This dissertation performs longitudinal textual analysis of twelve Economic Reports of the President- the premier American federal economic policy planning document published annually by the President and the Council of Economic Advisors- from the 1960s to the 1990s to propose that starting in the late 1970s, both Democratic and Republican US administrations deliberately and dramatically turned to promoting financial investment for citizen wellbeing over social spending as a response to shifting framings and consensus that government spending on social programs was the primary cause of rising economic inflation. Social programs had been lauded in the 1960s and early 1970s as necessary to achieve maximum economic growth and ensure citizen wellbeing, and were building off Keynesian-oriented economic ideology from the 1940s which proposed that full employment would optimize economic production. These beliefs were embedded in the initial purpose for the publication of the Economic Reports of the President which was mandated by the Full Employment Act of 1946. This dissertation proposes that with the shifting perceptions of social programs, inflation and finance in the 1970s, the Economic Reports of the President assumed a role of posturing responsibility for citizen wellbeing and economic productivity while shifting the deliverance to investment, which yielded widening inequality. The analysis of the Economic Reports of the President in this dissertation illustrates specific policies adopted by presidential administrations in the 1970s to promote investment, including: Gerald Ford’s administration criticizing social spending policy and the Jimmy Carter administration implementing pro-investment policy such as reducing the capital gains tax, approving of housing inflation, creating the 401(k) pension system and rebranding social spending as charity. As this dissertation shows, presidential administrations through the 1980s and 1990s continued to actively promote financial investment for citizen wellbeing instead of social spending. This dissertation uses a biopolitical framework to trace the evolving commitments to citizen wellbeing of government from the 1960s to the 1990s and the overlap with governance and economic growth strategies. It suggests that governments of the 1960s and early 1970s viewed citizen wellbeing as central to high productive economic growth while later governments do not view citizen wellbeing as central to economic growth, and instead as a secondary strategy to be achieved via financial investment. The dissertation also proposes that the Economic Reports of the President analyzed produce economic rhetoric and expectations for wellbeing as much as they reflect political discourse. As such, the turn to consistent promotion of investment to achieve citizen wellbeing in the Economic Reports of the President has created consequences wherein citizen precarity is normalized and accepted as the authentic limits of government provision, and not as a fabrication based on bipartisan framing of a historic economic crisis that was produced and narrated in the Reports themselves. The final chapter of the dissertation focuses on contemporary impacts of the turn to financialization of citizen wellbeing in the Economic Reports of the President, suggesting that the renewed use of the term “American Dream” to connote financial achievement in Economic Reports of President in the twenty-first century indicates attempts to create collective ideology around economic inequity while the deliberately anti-inflation themes of names of recent social spending bills and their limited range reflect the hauntings of the framings of the 1970s inflation. The dissertation proposes that there is a need to de-financialize economies and provision of citizen wellbeing, to achieve greater future equity and shared wellness.
Access status: Open Access ,
Best of Both Worlds: A Phenomenological Exploration of East Asian Diasporic Identity Through Virtual Reality
(2024-11-07) Ashizawa, Kaede Claire; de Jesuús, Desirée
While East Asian diaspora studies have addressed inequities imposed by hegemonic epistemologies on diasporic communities and identities, expressing the equally important politics of diasporic agency and joy is also essential. My research-creation intervenes in this knowledge space through a phenomenological framework informed by cyborg theory and assemblage theory in a Virtual Reality experience. Reiterating metaphors of prostheses for diasporic transcendence, I consider if instrumental and ecological cultural affinities of East Asian-Canadian identity can be perceived as such. Mediated by the VR experience, I visualized this by inquiring about diasporic upbringing, everyday life, personal and institutional relationships, and cultural interactions. Informed by autoethnography and semi-constructed interviews with 14 East Asian-Canadian participants, I investigated what hybridity and empowerment look, feel, and mean when extensions of diasporic selfhood are metaphorized as prostheses in an assemblage network. I also explored the affordances of VR as a pedagogical medium to visualize this analysis.
Access status: Open Access ,
Examining the impact of new media on the news media from the integrated viewpoint of media ecology and the political economy of communication
(2024-11-07) Miroshnichenko, Andrey; Reisenleitner, Markus
This dissertation combines the methodologies of media ecology and the political economy of communication to explore the dramatic decline in the news industry, accompanied by the growing public distrust in the news media. The internet introduced more advanced platforms for news consumption and ad delivery, thereby depriving the news media of their former monopoly over news and advertising. The dissertation research identified a significant shift in the print media business model worldwide in the early 2010s: advertising revenue fell below the level of reader revenue (subscriptions and copy sales) for the first time in a century. Concurrently, all news media outlets transitioned online in efforts to establish digital modes of operation and revenue generation. In transitioning from the advertising-funded model that was predominant throughout the 20th century, the print media, the primary focus of this dissertation, shifted towards prioritizing digital subscriptions. This led them to become increasingly dependent on digital audiences. Given that textual media (the press) have historically been the primary drivers of discourse in the public sphere, the significant changes in the press and the digital challenges faced by other forms of news media have had a profound impact on professional standards of journalism and the principles of discourse formation in society overall. Connecting media ecology and the political economy of communication is an interdisciplinary approach that provides new angles for analyzing changes in the news media and journalism in the digital era. To advance this novelty, the dissertation employs a variety of methods from both media ecology and the political economy of communication.
Access status: Open Access ,
The cultural mediation of the margin
(2024-11-07) Haque, Abu Faiz Md Aminul ; Reisenleitner, Markus
Identities are never fully unified but are considered fragmented and a process of becoming rather than being, in which the process of identification privileges some and excludes others. Identities also become complicated through the cultural and technological mediation of the dominant ideologies within the mechanisms of power and control. Hence, it requires a cross-cultural fluidity to unpack the alienation and entanglement brought about by the everyday spatial practices of the dominant culture into a space that is also occupied by other ethnocultural groups. The research does not rely on a particular discipline. Rather, it draws on several interdisciplinary fields of study including Canadian Cultural Studies, Visual Culture Studies, Marginality Studies, Ethnic Studies, Identity Studies, and Spatial Studies, as Communication and Culture by nature is interdisciplinary. It challenges the discursive practices perpetuated by the dominant ideologies that shape the identities of marginalized groups in an otherwise hybrid living environment in Canada. The research uses a triangulation of methodologies: a visual narrative, an analysis of images from two newspapers, and participant interviews to explore the cultural mediation of the margin. The visual narrative analyzes the images shared by the participants as well as the photos taken by the researcher. It also analyzes the images used in two newspapers. The images shared by the participants explore their homes, workplaces, and social spaces, including their culture, festivals, family life, leisure activities, etc. The analysis of the images supplements the interviews, while the visual narrative provides an introspection of the marginal space along with their struggle. The findings suggest the existence of a hegemonic culture, a set of ideologies and body politics that privilege the dominant group(s) to reproduce a specific national discourse and pedagogy. However, a hybrid form of living also constantly challenges this narrative to facilitate the voices of the other: the marginalized, the displaced, and the immigrants. The research thus expands our knowledge of the cultural production of identities within the national discourse of the so-called multicultural Canada.
Access status: Open Access ,
Retro Resonance: The Hauntological Power of Post-Retro Aesthetics in Videogames
(2024-11-07) Dolan, Patrick Ronald; Boyd, Jason
Modern mainstream video games, or AAA games, are perpetually pushing toward hyperrealist graphics and complex gameplay, requiring higher budgets and ever-growing development teams while controlling risk as much as possible. The result is a homogenized product that appeals to the sensibilities of a limited demographic of young, white or Japanese, straight, non-disabled, and neurotypical men and end up excluding or alienating others. This state of the industry has historically been seen as not only unproblematic, but as normal. This is partly due to our current state of “capitalist realism” (Fisher, 2009), where society not only sees oppressive capitalist practices as natural but cannot even imagine an alternative. Santiago Zabala (2017) claims that to break out of naturalizing ideologies like capitalist realism we need an aesthetic force: something to shock us out of our distribution of the sensible (Rancière, 2011), our stable and secure sense of how the world is and interrupt the flow of this stagnant progressivism. I argue that one aesthetic force in video games are pixel graphics and simplified gameplay, or post-retro gaming (Fulton & Fulton, 2010) from recent games, that use hauntology to glean elements of the past to create new experiences and stories. Hauntology is a progressive artistic practice that imagines a better future by salvaging parts of the past (Fisher, 2012, 2014), more nuanced than regressive nostalgia, though it can be entangled with it. To explore the connection between hauntology and post-retro games, this project outlines the problems with AAA games industry, examines the misconceptions of indie games today, and lays out in detail the relation of hauntology to theories on affect, aesthetics, and video games. This is followed with a critical analysis of games such as Dys4ia (2012), Undertale (2015), and Celeste (2018) for how exactly they use hauntology to create powerful, affective experiences that subvert narratives and gameplay of the problematic video game mainstream and point to a better future in games. I conclude by problematizing commercial indie games and pointing ultimately to anti-capitalist, DIY gamemaking platforms, in particular the accessible, 1bit engine Bitsy, as the future of hauntology in games culture.
Access status: Open Access ,
“No one said anything about driving in Film Preservation 101!”: The Lived Experience of Disability, Chronic Illness, and Neurodiversity in Moving Image Archival Education
(2024-11-07) Marlatt, Michael Alexander; Marchessault, Janine
Disability, neurodiversity, and chronic illness are underrepresented in moving image archives. Lack of representation is felt within collections, users of archives, and most importantly for the purposes of this project, staffing. Archivists often need advanced level education to work in the field. Archival education is the first potential employment barrier. This project highlights accessibility gaps in North American moving image archival education programs by sharing the lived experience of disabled students, neurodivergent students, and students with a chronic illness studying and working within moving image archives. Through semi-structured interviews with students, alumni, and faculty of George Eastman Museum’s L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation; NYU’s Moving Image Archiving Preservation program; UCLA’s former Moving Image Archive Studies program at UCLA and current MLIS Media Archival Studies specialization; and the Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), students and alumni share their experiences from the application process until graduation. My own perspective is also included as a person with epilepsy who graduated from the program at TMU. Key theories in archival studies, archival representation, film preservation, disability studies, cinema studies, and archival accessibility practises inform contextualization and analysis of these testimonies to lived experience, with a constant awareness of the interdisciplinarity existing within these fields. Concepts emphasized throughout include the political/relational model of disability, care, affect, universal design, academic ableism, trauma-informed archival practise, archival silences/bias, “the archive” vs archives, the person-centered archive, and community archives. Students’ experiences are organized around three themes: institutions hosting the programs, the programs, and the archival space. I argue that to create more inclusive archival education programs and overall field, it is vital to engage with the lived experiences of disabled students, neurodivergent students, and students with chronic illnesses. Knowledge mobilization is at the center of this project. This dissertation not only highlights accessibility gaps in moving image archival education but also gives suggestions for how to correct them. Collaboration is necessary for archival inclusion; the student perspective is critical for inclusionary growth.
Access status: Open Access ,
Climate Crisis, Youth and Media: a story analysis of Geo-Doc videos as agents for social transformations
(2024-11-07) Alsop, Dylan Wallace; Tschofen, Monique
The last three decades have witnessed paradigmatic transformations in how youth engage in climate crisis advocacy practices. My thesis offers analysis of a United Nations-endorsed policy advocacy project, The Youth Climate Report (YCR). The project comprises short youth documentaries geo-positioned on a virtual map combined with an annual report submitted to United Nations Council of parties (COP) negotiations. Inspired by the project as an initiative of “Speaking Youth to Power” (Terry, 2024), my thesis seeks to better understand, celebrate, and contribute to this initiative and more broadly to youth climate crisis documentary multimedia. Recognizing that climate crisis is in part a storytelling crisis and drawing on selected scholarship in media studies (McLuhan, Williams), youth studies (Hall, Castañeda, Foucault), and climate studies (Callison, Hulme, Solnit), I reflect on ways in which climate crisis and youth are framed and formed in stories bound up with social power relations. I analyzed a sample of YCR Geo-Doc media documentaries—20% of those available, n=130—asking two questions: How do Geo-Doc videos story climate crisis? How do Geo-Doc videos story youth? My comparative analysis reveals four influential climate stories (Impacts, Humans, Resources, and Solutions) entangled with four stories of youth (as Witnesses, as Heroes, Inheritors and as Vulnerable). My conclusion follows a political stance in which I interrogate these eight stories and alternatives and the extent to which they reproduce pre-existing stories with associated power relations thereby supporting the status quo and/or offer new ways that resist and challenge these. These discussions are more normative, seeking to identify youth climate crisis stories that are underrepresented and now urgently needed.

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